- 3 months ago
* Venezuela rejects U.S. military threats
* Humanitarian crisis worsens in Gaza amid Israel's attacks and winter storms
These and more stories now!
🌐Join teleSUR's community and be part of a space where your ideas matter.
https://chat.whatsapp.com/KLABTE41aSj3ioYabXQQ6K
🗣 Don't be left behind, join teleSUR's Channel
https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029Va98Z437Noa2tjytCt1N
Web💬 https://www.telesurenglish.net/
X🧶 https://twitter.com/telesurenglish
Instagram 📸 https://www.instagram.com/telesurenglish/?hl=es
Facebook 📱 https://www.facebook.com/teleSUREnglishOfficial
YouTube ⏯ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmuTmpLY35O3csvhyA6vrkg
TikTok👌🏼 https://www.tiktok.com/@telesurenglish?_t=8hMLCY0a6z7&_r=1
* Humanitarian crisis worsens in Gaza amid Israel's attacks and winter storms
These and more stories now!
🌐Join teleSUR's community and be part of a space where your ideas matter.
https://chat.whatsapp.com/KLABTE41aSj3ioYabXQQ6K
🗣 Don't be left behind, join teleSUR's Channel
https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029Va98Z437Noa2tjytCt1N
Web💬 https://www.telesurenglish.net/
X🧶 https://twitter.com/telesurenglish
Instagram 📸 https://www.instagram.com/telesurenglish/?hl=es
Facebook 📱 https://www.facebook.com/teleSUREnglishOfficial
YouTube ⏯ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmuTmpLY35O3csvhyA6vrkg
TikTok👌🏼 https://www.tiktok.com/@telesurenglish?_t=8hMLCY0a6z7&_r=1
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00Venezuela strongly rejects the US government's threat to impose a naval blockade on the nation,
00:17bowing to defend its rights to free trade, navigability, free development, sovereignty
00:22and national independence.
00:27The Brazilian Congress passed a bill on Wednesday that could reduce jail penalties for those
00:31involved in the 2022 coup d'etat, including former President Jair Bolsonaro, who is currently
00:37facing 27 years in prison.
00:43In the Gaza Strip, the humanitarian crisis worsens amid continuous Israeli aggressions
00:48and harsh winter conditions.
00:56Hello, welcome to From the South, I'm Sofia Fernandes from the Telesur Studios in Havana,
01:00Cuba.
01:02We'll begin with the news.
01:04Stay with us.
01:06I'm Sofia Fernandes.
01:15Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro ratified Venezuela's sovereignty over its oil and rejected
01:20the claims of the United States, emphasized that the Venezuelan state will not subordinate
01:24its territory or its wealth to colonial governments.
01:28During the commemorative ceremony for the 195th anniversary of the death of the Libertator
01:33Simón Bolívar, Percy and Nicolás Maduro assured that Venezuela will not continue to trade
01:38its oil and natural resources, in strict compliance with the Constitution and the decree of the Libertator
01:44Simón Bolívar, emphasizing that the country's resources belong exclusively to the Venezuelan
01:49people.
01:50In turn, he asserted that the majority of the U.S. people disagree with the aggression
01:54and threats that U.S. imperialism continues to level against Venezuela and the Caribbean.
02:00In the sense, the President reiterated his full confidence in the people's commitment
02:04to enforce imperfect civil-military police union their historical rights over their wealth
02:11and national territory.
02:12There are things that call for reflection how precisely at the 200 years of the birth of
02:29Bolívar, it is fulfilling the prophecy of great Pablo Neruda who said Bolívar awakens
02:41every 100 years, when the people awakens on our people, our beautiful great people awoke for
02:50never to go to sleep again and to stay in vigil, permanent and constant, in permanent fight.
03:02It is fabulous and magic, the history of our Latin America and the Caribbean.
03:09It is a history that is unique, that will never be able to be turned off or silenced or manipulated
03:19that are tinted.
03:20It is wonderful the history of our Venezuela, always rebellious and always creating process.
03:37The Venezuelan government also sent a letter to the President of the United Nations Security
03:41Council to call for an urgent meeting of the Security Council in light of recent US threats.
03:46The Venezuelan Foreign Minister opened the letter with,
03:49I am writing to you, in your capacity as President of the United Nations Security Council,
03:54to denounce a serious attack on the peace, security and stability of the Bolivarian Republic
03:59of Venezuela, as well as the Latin American and Caribbean region as a whole.
04:03It continues, in the history of Venezuela, never before has a head of state and or government
04:09of a foreign power come up with the deranged idea that the Venezuelan national territory,
04:14including its oil fields and other assets, belongs to them.
04:18This illusion is compounded by the ultimatum that if Venezuela does not surrender to their
04:23will, our nation will be attacked by their military forces.
04:27The Foreign Minister added that, gun-butt diplomacy to extort peoples belongs to an
04:32era that humanity has already overcome.
04:35If this Security Council ignores the crime of aggression, which is evident to the world,
04:40it would be accepting the destruction of the entire collective security system of the United Nations,
04:45which has caused peoples so much to build over the past 80 years.
04:55Meanwhile, the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America, ALBA-TCP,
04:59categorically rejects the U.S. declaration on its decision to totally and completely block oil
05:04tankers to Venezuela and its intention to steal its natural resources.
05:09In a statement, ALBA denounced, before the peoples of the world, the serious,
05:13reckless and supremacist threat made on December 16, 2025, by the President of the United States,
05:18Donald Trump, against the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.
05:22This declaration, which continues a total blockade on the forced appropriation of Venezuelan resources,
05:28constitutes an act of international aggression that grossly and flagrantly violates the
05:33Charter of the United Nations, international law, and the most basic principles of coexistence
05:38among states.
05:40The communique also states,
05:42The peoples and governments of ALBA express our full and non-restricted solidarity with the President
05:47Nicolás Maduro, the Bolivarian government, and the Venezuelan people,
05:51and we warn that any aggression against Venezuela is an aggression against all of our America.
05:56We call on the peoples of the world and social movements to reject this criminal threat,
06:01and defend the right of peoples to decide their own destiny.
06:05We reaffirm that our America is not a colony or the backyard of any empire.
06:10Venezuela is not alone.
06:12Free peoples will defend peace, sovereignty, and dignity against any attempt at domination.
06:17Moving on to Honduras.
06:25The Libre Party call on its supporters to take to the streets to defend the will of the people,
06:30expressed at the ballot box in the face of allegations of fraud.
06:33The leadership of the ruling Libre Party, an event held at the presidential palace unattended
06:38by senior party officials, demanding the opening of more than 19,000 ballot boxes for a vote-by-vote
06:45recount.
06:46In this context, President Xiomara Castro, together with the General Coordinator of the Libre Party,
06:51Manuel Zelaya, denounced electoral fraud due to the interference of the United States
06:55and called on their supporters to make peace throughout the country.
06:59And by calling, convoking you, it is precisely for us to be able to manifest ourselves in a peaceful way,
07:20in the way that we are used to, in a peaceful way, because the democracy is defended, standing, not in silence.
07:38In this scenario, presidential candidate Rick Simongata described the elections as an electoral coup,
07:43and demanded that they be an old, considering them the most fraudulent in the country's history.
07:50We all know what happened on Sunday the 30th, on Sunday the 30th.
07:58Those who dictated the order from there, with their allies here, they gave a brutal,
08:11hit, electoral coup, because they want to disappear.
08:17The party and the political force, and Zelaya and Melissa, and they want to disappear.
08:30The cause, the essence of this party.
08:35The party, to them we say, today, 17 days after the elections, that we are standing and fighting,
08:51and that we won't rest in our just demands.
09:00For what, and you know it, and you have also repeated all of these days to, and all the elections.
09:17The elections, the most cheated elections of the history of Honduras.
09:25And now, we have a short break coming up.
09:31But first, remember you can join us on TikTok at Tell Us With English,
09:34where you will find news in different formats, news updates, and more.
09:38We'll be right back. Stay with us!
09:40Welcome back to From the South.
09:54On Wednesday, the Brazilian Congress approved a bill that could produce the penalties of those involved in the 2022 coup,
10:00including former President Jair Bolsonaro.
10:03The bill, which had been approved last week in the Chamber of Deputies, passed with 48 votes in favor and 25 against.
10:10The measure seeks to reduce the effective prison time for those prosecuted for crimes against the democratic rule of law,
10:17including former President Jair Bolsonaro and other coup plotters who tried to override the will of the people.
10:23The regulation could reduce Bolsonaro's penalty, who is currently facing 27 years in prison, to as little as two and a half years.
10:31For his part, Brazilian President Luís Inácio Lula da Silva has the power to veto the bill.
10:36But in the event that he does, the bill could be taken to Congress once again.
10:41Moving on to Cuba, the Central Bank announced Wednesday the implementation of a new exchange market structure,
10:58introducing a daily floating exchange rate segment for currencies, alongside two existing fixed rates.
11:04Central Bank President Juana Lilia Delgado said that having different foreign exchange rates causes problems,
11:12encourages informal activity and makes it hard to track economic activity through banks and taxes.
11:18The authorities aimed to create conditions for gradual, temporary foreign exchange market transformations.
11:24A new three-segment structure was designed as a transitional scheme to avoid a sharp, disruptive devaluation.
11:31The reform aims to gradually recover the convertibility of the Cuban peso and move towards monetary conversions.
11:48In other news on Wednesday, the University of Buenos Aires warns of a 30% cut in the budget for the US University Hospitals in 2026,
11:56as outlined in the draft budget of President Javier Mille's administration.
12:00With 132 votes in favor, 97 against and 19 abstentions, Argentina's Chamber of Deputies approved the controversial 2026 budget bill,
12:10which repeals the disability emergency law and the university funding system.
12:15The University of Buenos Aires noted that this will impact top hospitals which serve over 700,000 patients a year.
12:23The institution expressed its rejection of the government's initiative to repeal the university financing law,
12:30and denounced the decline in wages of its workers, whose portion in power has been half in two years.
12:36Moving on to Ecuador, on Wednesday, the government activated the Emergency Operations Committee, COE,
12:49to monitor the AH3N2 flu and the circulation of other respiratory viruses in the country.
12:55The Ministry of Public Health reported that the COE held a meeting Wednesday to analyze the current epidemiological situation and planned actions.
13:05The meeting was shared by Minister of Environment and Energy, Inés Manzano, and attended by several members of the executive,
13:12including Vice President of the Republic, María José Pinto, who oversees health.
13:17The Vice President reported that more than 250,000 people have already been vaccinated against the flu in the country,
13:25including 100,000 children under the age of six belonging to the priority group.
13:36Meanwhile, the Boruian government has submitted a bill that extends, for the fifth consecutive time,
13:41the temporary permit for informal miners to continue extracting gold and copper until the end of 2026.
13:48The decision came after a day of protests in the capital,
13:52where hundreds of miners marched to the areas surrounding the Congress in Lima
13:56to demand the continuation of their operations.
13:59President Jari, who previously affirmed his support for this extension,
14:03also has 15 days to sign the law of returning to Parliament with comments.
14:08Since 2016, successive Peruvian governments have systematically extended the deadline
14:13due to their inability to register and monitor thousands of miners.
14:26The struggle of all Peruvians and all miners is a struggle that we have won.
14:31It doesn't matter if it's one year.
14:33It doesn't matter.
14:34It doesn't matter.
14:35But remember, authorities, congressmen and government,
14:38formalization does not depend on us.
14:41It depends on you.
14:46The Energy Committee's substitute text, which amends Legislative Decree 1293,
14:52declaring the formalization of artisanal and small-scale mining activities to be of national interest,
14:58was approved in a second vote.
15:02We have a second short break coming up.
15:04Before, we invite you to visit our Facebook page at Telesur English.
15:07There, you'll be able to watch your top stories, special life coverage and much more.
15:11Follow our page and activate the notification button to stay up to date on the world's most recent events.
15:16Final short break, but we'll be right back with more from the South. Don't go away.
15:20The death toll rises in the Gaza Strip amid continuous Israeli aggressions and harsh winter conditions that exacerbate the humanitarian crisis.
15:39According to the Ministry of Health, one Palestinian was killed, and eleven were injured in the latest Israeli aggression.
15:46While many murders remained trapped beneath the rubble or stranded in the streets, as rescue crews struggled to work.
15:53Furthermore, the tragic winter has left twelve people dead, eleven of them from collapsed structures and one of them of freezing.
16:01For his part, the Gaza Civil Defense warned that severe winter weather has sharply worsened the humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip, triggering building collapses, mass flooding and further civilian deaths.
16:14So far, Israel has committed 394 ceasefire violations since the October 2025 ceasefire agreement.
16:39Two Indian officials recently made remarks about pollution, which has increased frustration among residents who claim that police makers are unwilling to acknowledge the severity of India's air quality crisis.
16:52Environment Minister Bupender Yadav told Parliament that New Delhi had seen 200 good air quality days.
17:00However, pollution experts and opposition leaders said he overlooked the worst months.
17:05Environmentalists and data experts claim that India's air quality measurement standards are more lenient than those of countries such as the United States, causing moderate readings to often mask dangerous pollution levels.
17:18India's government air quality standards are also less stringent than the World Health Organization guidelines.
17:34In other news, Russia and Iran announced a joint initiative to create a global group against unilateral sanctions, which they consider illegal and a violation of international law.
17:44The proposal was presented by Foreign Ministers Sergei Lavrov and Abbas Arashi during a press conference in Moscow, as part of their commitment to strengthening bilateral strategic cooperation.
17:56Lavrov said that Moscow and Iran agreed on the need to create an international group against sanctions and stressed that these measures have a negative political and economic impact on countries affected.
18:07The Russian minister also highlighted the active cooperation between the two countries on strategy projects and expressed Russia's willingness to join mediation efforts in Iran requested it.
18:19Moving on to the United Kingdom, resident doctors in England are going on strike for five days to demand better pay, a move that threatens to disrupt public health services due to the current flu outbreak.
18:39The strike called by the British Medical Association began on Wednesday morning after talks between the British Medical Association and the government to avoid it fail.
18:48This is the 14th strike by this group since March 2023.
18:53Resident doctors who make up almost half of the medical staff in English hospitals are demanding a paid price of more than 20%.
19:02In addition to the salary issue, the British Medical Association has linked the protests to the shortage of specialized training places, arguing that thousands of qualified doctors cannot find work despite the long waiting lists in the national health services.
19:32The 27th edition of the Winter Festival in Harbin, China will mark the opening of Ice and Snow World, the world's largest Ice and Snow theme park.
19:46The space, which covers 400,000 cubic meters, features ice cultures and attractions that celebrate the country's culture and includes impressive illuminated structures, activities such as lighting, ice skating and interaction with artificial intelligence.
20:01as well as fresh areas and gastronomy.
20:05The park will be open until the end of February 2026 and local authorities hope the event will boost tourism and promote the art of ice, offering a unique experience for visitors.
20:25A Mexico City lights up with the Winter Lights program, a massive cultural event that will fill the capital with music and art during the December holidays.
20:34Mexican authorities reported that the activities will continue until January 6 in the Zócalo and 15 other locations, with the participation of 76 musical groups of various genders.
20:46The initiative seeks to decentralize cultural offerings so that the celebrations reach all communities beyond the historic center.
20:55Highlights include a 150-meter tunnel of light, a monumental nativity scene and forums with pastorellas and storytellers.
21:11And like this, we have come to the end of this news brief.
21:13You can find this and many other stories on our website at telosurenglish.net and join us on social media.
21:18We're on Facebook, X, Instagram, Telegram and TikTok.
21:22For TELOSUR English, I'm Sophie Fernandez.
Comments